NAME

gpm-types - pointer types (mice, tablets, etc.) managed by gpm.
The information below is extracted from the texinfo file, which is the
preferred source of information.

DESCRIPTION

This manpage describes the various pointer types currently available in
gpm. If you look at the source code, you’ll find that pointer-specific
code is confined to ‘mice.c’ (while it used to only include mouse
decoders, gpm now supports tablets and touchscreens as well).
The mouse type is specified on command line with the ‘-t’ option. The
option takes an argument, which represents the name of a mouse type.
Each type can be associated to different names. For old mouse types,
one name is the old selection-compatible name, and another is the XFree
name. After version 1.18.1 of gpm, the number of synonyms was made
arbitrary and the actual name being used is made available to the
function responsible for mouse initialization. Therefore it is possible
for a mouse decoder to behave slightly differently according to the
name being used for the device (if this feature was already present, we
wouldn’t have for example ms+ and ms+lr as different mouse types).
The initialization procedure of each mouse type can also receive extra
option, by means of the -o command line option. Since interpretation of
the option string is decoder-specific, the allowed options are
described in association to each mouse type. When no description of
option strings is provided, that means the option string is unused for
that mouse type and specifying one generates an error. When the
document refer to ‘‘standard serial options’’ it means that one of -o
dtr, -o rts, -o both can be specified to toggle the control lines of
the serial port.
The following mouse type are corrently recognized:
bare Microsoft
The Microsoft protocol, without any extension. It only reports
two buttons. If your device has three, you should either try
running the mman decoder or msc. In the latter case, you need to
tell the mouse to talk msc protocol by toggling the DTR and RTS
lines (with one of -o drt, -o rts or -o both) or invoking ‘gpm
-t msc’ while keeping the middle button pressed. Very annoying,
indeed. This mouse decoder accepts standard serial options,
although they should not be needed.
ms This is the original Microsoft protocol, with a middle-button
extension. Some old two-button devices send some spurious
packets which can be misunderstood as middle-button events. If
this is your case, use the ‘bare’ mouse type. Some new two-
button devices are ‘‘plug and play’’, and they don’t play fair
at all; in this case try -t pnp. Many (most) three-button
devices that use the microsoft protocol fail to report some
middle-button events during mouse motion. Since the protocol
does not distinguish between the middle button going up and the
middle button going down it would be liable to get out of step,
so this decoder declares the middle button to be up whenever the
mouse moves. This prevents dragging with the middle button, so
you should probably use ‘-t ms+lr’ instead of this decoder,
especially if you want to use X. This mouse decoder accepts
standard serial options, although they should not be needed.
ms+ This is the same as ‘-t ms’ except that the middle button is not
reset during mouse motion. So you can drag with the middle
button. However, if your mouse exhibits the usual buggy
behaviour the decoder is likely to get out of step with reality,
thinking the middle button is up when it’s down and vice versa.
You should probably use ‘-t ms+lr’ instead of this decoder.
This mouse decoder accepts standard serial options, although
they should not be needed.
ms+lr This is the same as ‘-t ms+’ except that there is an additional
facility to reset the state of the middle button by pressing the
other two buttons together. Do this when the decoder gets into a
confused state where it thinks the middle button is up when it’s
down and vice versa. (If you get sick of having to do this,
please don’t blame gpm; blame your buggy mouse! Note that most
three-button mice that do the microsoft protocol can be made to
do the MouseSystems protocol instead. The ‘‘3 Button Serial
Mouse mini-HOWTO’’ has information about this.) This mouse
decoder accepts standard serial options, although they should
not be needed.
msc MouseSystems
This is the standard protocol for three-button serial devices.
Some of such devices only enter MouseSystem mode if the RTS, DTR
or both lines are pushed low. Thus, you may try -t msc
associated with -o rts, -o dtr or -o both.
mman Mouseman
The protocol used by the new Logitech devices with three
buttons. It is backward compatible with the Microsoft protocol,
so if your mouse has three buttons and works with -t ms or
similar decoders you may try -t mman instead to use the middle
button. This mouse decoder accepts standard serial options,
although they should not be needed.
sun The protocol used on Sparc computers and a few others. This
mouse decoder accepts standard serial options, although they
should not be needed.
mm MMSeries
Title says it all. This mouse decoder accepts standard serial
options, although they should not be needed.
logi Logitech
This is the protocol used by old serial Logitech mice.
bm BusMouse
Some bus devices use this protocol, including those produced by
Logitech.
ps2 PS/2
The protocol used by most busmice.
ncr This ‘type’ is able to decode the pointing pen found on some
laptops (the NCR 3125 pen)
wacom The protocol used by the Wacom tablet. Since version 1.18.1 we
have a new Wacom decoder, as the old one was not working with
new tablets. This decoder was tested with Ultrapad, PenPartner,
and Graphire tablets. Options: -o relative (default) for
relative mode, -o absolute for absolute mode.
genitizer
The This mouse decoder accepts standard serial options, although
they should not be needed.
logim Used to turn Logitech mice into Mouse-Systems-Compatible.
Obviously, it only works with some of the Logitech mice.
pnp This decoder works with the new mice produces by our friend
Bill, and maybe with the old ones as well. The Pnp protocol is
hardwired at 1200 baud and is upset by normal initialization, so
this is a -t bare decoder with no initialization at all. This
mouse decoder accepts standard serial options, although they
should not be needed.
ms3 A decoder for the new serial IntelliMouse devices, the ones with
three buttons and a protocol incompatible with older ones. The
wheel is currently unused.
imps2 ‘‘IntelliMouse’’ on the ps/2 port. This type can also be used
for a generic 2-button ps/2 mouse too, since it will auto-detect
the type.
netmouse
Decodes the ‘‘Genius NetMouse’’ type of devices on the ps/2
port. For serial ‘‘Netmouse’’ devices, use the ‘‘ms3’’ decoder.
cal A decoder of the ‘‘Calcomp UltraSlate device.
calr Same as above, but in relative mode.
twid Support for the twiddler keyboard. As of gpm-1.14 this decoder
includes a char generator for the text console, but doesn’t yet
support X keycodes. If used with ‘-R’, ‘gpm’ will anyway repeat
mouse events to the X server. More information about twiddler
support can be found in ‘README.twiddler’, in the gpm
distribution.
syn synaptics
A decoder for the Synaptics TouchPad connected to the serial
port. This mouse decoder accepts standard serial options,
although they should not be needed.
synps2 synaptics_ps2
Same as above, but for the devices attached to the ps2 port.
brw A decoder for the Fellowes Browser, a device with 4 buttons and
a wheel. This mouse decoder accepts standard serial options,
although they should not be needed.
js Joystick
This mouse type uses the joystick device to generate mouse
events. It is only available if the header ‘linux/joystick.h’ is
found at compile time. The header (and the device as well) has
been introduced only during 2.1 development, and is not present
in version 2.0 of the kernel.
summa This is a decode for the Symmagraphics of Genius tablet, run in
absolute mode. A repeater is associated to this decoder, so it
can -R summa can be used to generate X events even for other
absolute-pointing devices, like touchscreens. To use the
repeated data from X, you need a modified xf86Summa.o module.
mtouch A decoder for the MicroTouch touch screen. Please refer to the
file ‘README.microtouch’ in the source tree of gpm for further
information. In the near future, anyways, I plan to fold back to
this documentation the content of that file.
gunze A decoder for the gunze touch screen. Please refer to the file
‘README.gunze’ in the source tree of gpm for further
information. In the near future, anyways, I plan to fold back to
this documentation the content of that file. The decoder accepts
the following options: smooth=, debounce=. An higher smoothness
results in slower motion as well; a smaller smoothness gives
faster motion but, obviously, less smooth. The default
smoothness is 9. The debounce time is express in milliseconds
and is the minimum duration of an up-down event to be taken as a
tap. Smaller bounces are ignored.
acecad The Acecad tablet in absolute mode.
wp wizardpad
Genius WizardPad tablet

FILES

src/mice.c The source file for pointer decoders

SEEALSO

gpm(8) The General Purpose Mouse server
The info file about ‘gpm’, which gives more complete information and
explains how to write a gpm client.